Slow Cooker Pasta e Fagioli Soup–your favorite soup from Olive Garden made at home in your slow cooker. White and red beans, ground beef, tomatoes and pasta in a savory broth.
Get the Instant Pot version of the recipe here
This is the original picture from 2013.
Slow Cooker Pasta e Fagioli Soup
For years this slow cooker pasta e fagioli soup has been super popular. I love to make this soup when I’m feeding a huge crowd because it makes a lot! Last night I made it for our neighborhood Halloween block party and it was eaten up in no time. I love making breadsticks or homemade rolls to serve with this soup. And maybe even a simple salad with the Olive Garden salad dressing to make the experience complete. I actually like my version better than the restaurant version!
A few notes about the ingredients:
The Pasta–Usually I make Slow Cooker Pasta e Fagioli Soup with ditalini pasta. When I went to the store yesterday I couldn’t find any so I substituted with cellentani pasta. Either will work. In fact you can use plain old elbow macaroni noodles and that will work awesome too.
The other thing you need to know about the pasta is that is soaks up a lot of liquid. The longer it sits the less it is like a soup and the more it is like a goulash. So this is what I propose…boil the pasta on the stove separately. Ladle a bowl of soup into a bowl and add the desired amount of pasta into your bowl. Keep the pasta and soup leftovers in different containers in your fridge and whenever you want soup add the cooked pasta right before eating. If you’re okay with it being less soup-like you can add the uncooked noodles straight to the slow cooker at the end of cooking time and let them cook in there for about a half hour. Just know the longer it sits the more and more bloated the pasta will get and the less broth there will be in the soup.
Can I halve the recipe?–yes. It’s kind of a pain in the booty to only use half a can of beans though. So what I would suggest is leaving out the Great Northern beans and just using one can of kidney beans. Also the crushed tomatoes I buy come in a large 28 oz can but I’m positive I’ve seen a 14 oz can before at the grocery store. Everything else is really easy to cut in half.
More Slow Cooker Soup Recipes You’ll Enjoy…
Slow Cooker Italian Tortellini Soup–a favorite from childhood, everyone loves this soup!
Slow Cooker Chicken Gnocchi Soup–another Olive Garden copycat soup!
Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini, Spinach and Chicken Soup–one of the most popular recipes on my website!
Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup–serve with a dollop of ricotta on top!
This is the original picture from 2013.
What Slow Cooker Did You Use?
To make Slow Cooker Pasta e Fagioli Soup I used my beloved 6 quart oval KitchenAid slow cooker. I love this slow cooker because it cooks evenly and low. I also love this slow cooker because it has a neat timer with satisfying beeping buttons as well as a medium setting for those days where you start your slow cooker at an in-between time. If you’re in the market for a new slow cooker I definitely recommend this one!
Print
Slow Cooker Pasta e Fagioli Soup
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 6-8 hours on low
- Total Time: 24 minute
- Yield: 10 cups of soup 1x
Description
Your favorite soup from Olive Garden made at home in your slow cooker. White and red beans, ground beef, tomatoes and pasta in a savory broth.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- Salt and pepper
- 1 medium yellow or white onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup shredded or diced carrots (I used 3 medium carrots)
- 1 cup diced celery (I used 3 celery ribs)
- 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
- 2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
- 1 Tbsp better than bouillon beef base
- 2 cups water
- 1 (15 oz) can light red kidney beans, with liquid
- 1 (15 oz) can great northern beans, with liquid
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 cup apple juice
- 6 oz ditalini pasta, uncooked
- Parmesan cheese, for topping
- Parsley, for garnish
Instructions
- Brown ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat until no longer pink, lightly seasoning with salt & pepper. Add in the onions and garlic. Saute the onions until they are translucent. Drain excess grease and then add the meat to a large slow cooker.
- Add in the carrots, celery, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef base, water, red beans, great northern beans, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, thyme and apple juice.
- Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Cook the pasta*(see my note below) according to directions on the package. Ladle the soup into bowls and then add in a handful of the pasta. Garnish with Parmesan cheese and parsley. Enjoy!
Notes
Usually I make Slow Cooker Pasta e Fagioli Soup with ditalini pasta. When I went to the store yesterday I couldn’t find any so I substituted with cellentani pasta. Either will work. In fact you can use plain old elbow macaroni noodles and that will work awesome too.
*The other thing you need to know about the pasta is that is soaks up a lot of liquid. The longer it sits the less it is like a soup and the more it is like a goulash. So this is what I propose…boil the pasta on the stove separately. Ladle a bowl of soup into a bowl and add the desired amount of pasta into your bowl. Keep the pasta and soup leftovers in different containers in your fridge and whenever you want soup add the cooked pasta right before eating. If you’re okay with it being less soup-like you can add the uncooked noodles straight to the slow cooker at the end of cooking time and let them cook in there for about a half hour. Just know the longer it sits the more and more bloated the pasta will get and the less broth there will be in the soup.
Can I halve the recipe?–yes. It’s kind of a pain in the booty to only use half a can of beans though. So what I would suggest is leaving out the Great Northern beans and just using one can of kidney beans. Also the crushed tomatoes I buy come in a large 28 oz can but I’m positive I’ve seen a 14 oz can before at the grocery store. Everything else is really easy to cut in half.
- Category: Soup
- Method: Slow Cooker
Send Me Free Recipes
Get all my new recipes delivered to your email inbox by signing up below.
This is a free service! Try it out. You’ll eat better and be more inspired to make family dinner happen at your house.
This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. Each time you purchase something from Amazon that I’ve linked to I get a few pennies. Thanks so much for supporting my blog!
Excellent flavor. I used Italian sausage in place of the ground beef since I didn’t have any gb. Put a small cheese rind in, and also used the celery leaves along with the celery. I cut the salt to 1/2 tsp. due to the sausage, but next time will leave it out so it won’t be so salty. It was great with crusty buttered bread.
★★★★★
Excited to try this tomorrow – feeding 14 – do you think I could double this in a 6-quart slow cooker? Or 1 1/2 it?
It makes a lot as it is. I would only 1 1/2 times it. I don’t think it would fit in your slow cooker if you doubled it.
Whoa! yes! I did actually 1 1/2x the recipe. My slow cooker is full to the top. Glad for the tip to make the pasta separately. Looks amazing. Can’t wait for our whole crew to enjoy it!
Oh good!
This tastes identical to Olive Garden it’s so easy to make and very good!!!
I love this one too 🙂
KK
★★★★★
The original recipe from 2013 called for beef broth. I was wondering how much of the broth it called for. Thank you!
2 cups beef broth and then leave out the better than bouillon.
The original recipe called for 30 oz. beef broth. I always used the College Inn 32 oz. beef broth .. all of it. I am making this “as we speak”!! I must make this about 10 times a year!
Awesome Elizabeth!
Usually the pasta (pre-cooked) and the apple juice is added at “the end” of the recipe when everything else is cooked through.
Question for you? I’m wondering about the pasta and keeping it separate…any tricks to keeping the noodles from sticking to each other? Olive oil? Or is there a better way to do that? Thanks!
Hi Melissa, This is a great question! I bet olive oil would be a good choice. I’ve also read that if you run cold water over it that will help remove the starch.
How about allowing for your recipes to be “SHARED ON FACEBOOK”!!!! This is the second time I have commented on this…
★★★★★
Could you cook on high for 4 hours?
yes you could!
Just wondering – what does the apple juice add to the soup? I've never heard of adding apple juice to a savory soup. I'm fascinated!
It's just kind of the same thing as adding a tablespoon of brown sugar to meat recipes to give just a slight hint of sugar.
This is a fantastic website and I can not recommend you guys enough. I really appreciate your post. It is very helpful for all the people on the web.
Hello! I threw all the ingredients into the crockpot for an after soccer dinner and was not disappointed! This soup is VERY delicious!
Do you think that ground Italian sausage would be good in this instead of ground beef? I have used it before in some Italian soups and it has added even more flavor.
I think that would be amazing! I will try that next time 🙂
This recipe was great! And I really like your blog. I'm a new food blogger and would love to post my version of this recipe on my blog and put a link to your blog and recipe? Thanks.
I wanted to make this during Lent as a meat free meal. Do you think it would taste alright without the ground beef in it?
I'd be nervous that without the meat a lot of flavor would be missing. Try these meatless recipes instead maybe: http://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/2009/01/meatless.html
I just add another can of red kidney beans instead of any meat…I’m not vegetarian but I and my daughter just don’t eat meat everday…this recipe is so good that it’s amazing with the extra beans and no meat.
★★★★★
Making this for 1st time……..accidentally added apple juice before I was supposed to according to how the recipe is stated……………will this ruin the recipe?
I bet it will be fine!
I made this yesterday. BETTER than Olive Garden! Thank you for a great winter receipe that I will be sure to make a lot of. I am glad I made it in my oval crock pot. Also, I made it with ground white meat chicken and I did not cook the meat first. It really is a faboulous meal!
Yum…I love ground chicken. I will have to try that!
Siiiigh. So, I accidentally forgot to brown my meat before putting it in.. Not my day.. Is this ok, will it cook or do I need to throw it out and start over?
I'm betting it didn't turn out. Am I right??
Do you add the apple juice when you add the pasta?? Thank you.
yes!
Any chance of getting nutritional information or did I miss it?
I am not sure of the nutrition info! There are websites that allow you to type in a recipe and it will give you the nutrition info.
Amy, nope! You can if you want though…see if it turns out!
Hi – this looks great. Do you really not drain/rinse the beans?? thanks
Made this today two rhumbs up from the family. I added more liquid as the soup looked really thick.
Loved this recipe! Most definitely one to keep on hand especially for the winter. I froze half of the pot (minus the pasta). Thank you for posting.
I pinned this a while ago, but finally made it tonight. It was a hit! Loved it. Tasted exactly like Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli soup. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Making this for dinner this week! Looks delicious, so we can't wait. 🙂
So glad you liked it! Good job using the rice. That is a good way to make this Pasta E Fagioli recipe gluten free!
Love love love this!
I used brown rice instead of the pasta. It came out great! THANK YOU THANK YOU!
NEVER, EVER, cook PASTA in any soup unless you are going to serve soon, because the pasta will SOAK up all of your BROTH. ALWAYS cook pasta on the side, and add to plate. YES, this would FREEZE very well (without the pasta). Great recipe.
I took a hint from someone who cooks the pasta separately and then each person can add as much pasta as they want . if you leave a lot of pasta in the soup it will sock up lots of liquid.
Your recipe looks MARVELOUS, I'll make it your way first and then make it Pasta e Lentini. Or not
I make something very very similar and in the summer when veggies are fresh, I make a "base" of zuchinni, onions, and tomatoes and I freeze it. Then in the winter I just take the "base" out and add 28 oz crushed tomatoes, herbs, beans and water (or broth) and have a wonderful soup. I do not freeze the pasta. I have also made the large batch and freeze half (again, do not freeze the pasta, cook it fresh and add it to the soup once it is hot!) Yummy!!
Just reading comments, I know, a little late in the conversation but for the one who didn't want to use beans, you could use some canned diced potatoes. Rinsed off, they don't require as much liquid to cook. You might add 6-8 oz of beef broth and adjust seasonings as well. Soup is grand!
Susan, so glad you liked it!
Karen
WONDERFUL! This is a great copycat recipe for the Olive Garden version. I did chop the carrots in lieu of shredding (laziness on my part) and it was still great. HIGHLY recommend this recipe. Love the fact there isn't spaghetti sauce in it, like other versions call for.
Susan
thanks Ben!
HI Karen
Another hit as usual! Thank you sooo much for sharing I'll defnitely spread the word!
anonymous, I would leave the liquid the same. The recipe calls for canned beans which are already cooked so they don't soak up much liquid. I wonder what you could sub for beans that you may like? Corn? More meat? It seems like it wouldnt be all that filling without them.
We are not into beans so ig I leave those out should I increase the liquid?
I am trying it today. Fingers crossed for a glorious soup during this chilly weather!
unknown,
yes! you could definitely cut it in half. the only problem is that the cans of beans would have to be halved too so you'd have half a can of beans in the fridge. or you could put a whole can of just one kind of bean in…that would probably work great. I'm not sure how it would freeze with the pasta in it. Maybe take out half and freeze before you add the pasta. good luck!
Karen
I just use one can of the light kidney beans and add the pasta on the side.
good idea with the pasta on the side!
This soup is delicious ?. My whole family loves it. I serve it with garlic bread ? or garlic sticks. The leftovers freeze well.
Thanks! This is so great to hear 🙂
Could you cut it in half or freeze the leftovers?
Wow ! the recipe looks delicious. Thanks for sharing this easy-looking recipe. I MIGHT try it sometime soon.